1. First off, can you tell us a bit about yourself?
Ok, I'm 34 and I live in Dorset UK, I'm married to another painter and we have a 4 year old girl, its a pretty artistic household. I love painting of course, I have to paint everyday, it's a bit of an addiction for me. I read loads, love music (arcade fire, depeche mode, gogol bordello, bowie, pixies) and still go to the odd gig when i can. We live in a little market town that's near to the sea and country and woods, I like to spend my summers at the beach, and my winters sat in cosy pubs by a log fire a Guiness in my hand.

2. What is your preferred medium for painting - oils? Acrylics? Watercolor?
Definitely oils on canvas. I tried acrylic but they dried too quickly, and with oils I love just how fluid it all is for blending, and I also just love the smell and the general messiness of it all.

3. What kind of preparation work do you do to your canvas?
I am a bit lazy on that front, and also just too impatient to get going on each picture, I buy gallery quality canvases so everything is done for me, the only preparation I do is to give them a coat of paint in buff as I hate working directly straight onto a bright white canvas.

4. I can't help but notice the amount of detail in intricate pattern work that you include behind your characters. Are these stencilled on?
No way! hehe, those backgrounds are totally painted by hand, I do draw them out first to get nice clean lines and check its all symmetrical, but yes they're all painstakingly hand painted to the point where its such hard work I sometimes wondering why I'm doing it! But its always worth it in the end when you stand back and see it all come together. I use reference from wallpaper websites so I can be quite true to how damask wallpaper actually looks. I wish I could get a stencil of it, hehe!

5. What inspires you to paint a series of objects or people?
Well the camper van series is inspired by where we live, we're on the south coast of England near lots of natural and rugged beaches, and there's lots of VW vans around especially in the summer, I think they make a great image as each one is its own character, to me they're as iconic as Coca-Cola, and they're always out on summery days, it just gives me good vibes painting them, and hopefully that comes through in the paintings. When I've sold enough I'll buy one of my own :-)

The shoes I started painting at a point where we were moving house and had no room to paint in, I normally work 20x30", these are a lot smaller. I was doing them when I should have been packing boxes! I found they ended up being good little practice pieces. No reason for shoes particularly, I had a small canvas and grabbed the nearest thing to paint from which were some All Stars, could have easily been a ketchup bottle. Some people say to me why on earth have you painted some shoes? but to other people these pictures make them smile, they see the shoes in a different light, like they have their own character, or they wonder who the owner is.

The women are my favourite subjects though and where I can get truly quite creative, they kind of fall two groups. The first group with the detailed backgrounds are total experiments, they're a made up of a hotch potch of ideas and influences, some I've painted from a photo I took of a mannequin in a shop window for reference, but then I might change the clothes, or add other objects, and make up the background to suit the character, they were initially meant to be kind of English eccentrics, a bit quirky, a bit vintage, a bit sexy and theatrical looking. I used them to experiment with the paint, and colour, and detail while I've been on a continuous learning curve with my oils. They're not real people, but I think stem somewhat from my many years spent working in the beauty industry.

The latest bunch I've been painting are real women and I'm starting to find that far more exciting. The Tart Gallery contacted me and asked me to submit two pieces for a show they're having in March. I already knew of this website as it has many of my favourite artists on there (Tara McPherson, Lisa Petrucci, Sunny Buick, Angela Houtkamp). I was blown away by the invite, and that one email made me really up my game almost overnight and I immediately started searching for real people to paint from. The art they have on their site is very edgy and rock n' roll and so my first hunt for models was Suicide Girls and also MySpace. This has been the most fulfilling artwork I've done, the few girls I've used so far I've asked their permission, and it has been fantastic to hear what they then think of the result (all good so far!). It's nice trying to capture a 'spirit' or attitude and not just an image, and I hope that's what I'm doing, I also really envy these girls, if I had their courage I'd cover myself in tattoos and get myself put in SG too! In some ways I'm probably painting the inner me that's just dying to get out, but I hope that by painting these amazing women I'm just celebrating all us girls in general ;-)

6. Is there any specific location where you like to sketch things out? Furthermore, do you do your painting on-location?
I don't paint on location, I would be way too embarrassed to do that, I'm nervous enough answering these questions ;-) What's probably even more embarrassing to admit is my painting location depends on what else I'm doing, if I'm watching a film or tv then I'll paint in the lounge on the coffee table doing both at once (yes I paint them flat not upright, which has been a problem in the past when I've stood a picture up and realized its all out of perspective, but I'm used to it now). I've tried an easel but find it impossible to paint the canvas upright, just can't get my hand steady enough. I realism painting this ridiculous way I will probably develop a hunchback in time!

7. Who do you use for your models? Do you use live models?
In an ideal world I'd love to use live models, and style them myself too, it's definitely something to work towards. Like I said before, references for people have come from lots of places, shop dummies I've photographed, made up out of my head, clothes/accessories from magazines, girls from MySpace, the last real person I painted was a 24 year old burlesque dancer

8. Why did you start into painting in the first place?
I think I was born with a pencil in my hand, and spent a lot of my childhood in my room scribbling away furiously, its always felt like a natural thing to be doing. Most of my girlhood and teens was in the 80's, and I was hugely influenced by all the exotic women you'd start to see in pop videos like Duran Duran's, and I idolized women like Debbie Harry and Kate Bush, I loved Nagel's artwork like on the Rio cover, and I also loved all the airbrushed Syd Brak women that were around a lot at the time, and I still have those same posters now. I used to draw all sorts but at that point I seemed to be particularly drawn to sketching from photos of glamorous women I saw in mum's fashion catalogues or my girly mags. Going off to uni seemed to put paid to my artistic obsessions, and most freetime there was spent with a pint or a pool cue in my hand rather than a paintbrush, and painting didn't really come into my life again till I started my first job. I moved to London and my first job was in an auction house, an interesting job but underpaid and I was really poor, and it was then with not enough money to go out every night I picked the pencils back up. Someone suggested that I put colour in my pictures and my parents bought me some acrylics and I was off. I was so skint I used to just paint on found things, mostly pieces of wood out of local skips. I spent a lot of time painting like that, and used to give them away to make room to always be doing more.

I didn't use oils till many years later when I finally left London, working less hours gave me more time to paint and also give oils a go. Once I tried them I never looked back. In Dorset I met my husband, who had been painting and selling for some time, and his art and success and encouragement inspired me to try and start taking it all a bit more seriously.

9. Have you tried painting in the "digital realm" (cliche!) with a Wacom tablet or similar stylus device?
Never, I wouldn't know where to begin, and I just really like to get stuck in with pencils and rubber and paint and get my hands dirty, I like that there is a physical result you can touch at the end of whatever blood, sweat and tears went into it.

10. Do your paintings start from a sketch/concept or do you just grab the paint and go?
I have tried to be spontaneous like that but have always seemed to end up with a canvas of brown sludge, but its definitely something else to work towards. My paintings always start from a sketch, I'd love to just go for it, but my brain is just not wired that way. Too many years being a designer means you always start from the foundations up, and I'm just too used to drawing in real detail in my daily job before any colour is even added.

11. Who and/or what do you look towards for inspiration?
Magazines, people on the street, fashion, make-up, shop windows, music and videos, other artists, traveling. I love all things pin-up, retro, kitsch, tiki and glam. But I can just as easily get inspiration from every day things, I never go out without my camera, and I have a box file of magazine cuttings and photos and things I've collected like a magpie that I can turn to. I'm really enjoying the pin-up girls that I'm painting right now, but I'm always thinking of new things I'd love to have a go at. I've been on a couple of american road trips, and really think some of those sights and sounds would make for great paintings, especially the motels maybe. I'm finding painting to be a big adventure, I love being creative and knowing I can go where the mood takes me. I should probably stick to one theme and get real good (and rich and famous!) at that, but I'm too easily distracted, and life's too short, I want to have a go at everything so I'll probably end up jack of all trades and master of none

12. What kinds of galleries, if any, have you shown your art in?
My paintings are in a few galleries in the UK right now, a couple of them are fine art galleries who are trying out my work, and there's another two that are more arts and crafts galleries. The Tart Gallery will be my first 'proper' and international break when my two paintings go into the Vancouver show next March, along with this interview of course, I can't believe I'm being interviewed!

13. Is painting your living? Or do you/have you worked in the graphic realm for a living?
I wish it was my living, and it is my dream one day... I have actually spent years designing shop display by trade. I spent 8 years in London working as a designer in the beauty industry, the job is incredibly creative, and rewarding when you get to see your work instore, so that kept me pretty busy enough in artistic terms. London was exciting but I was there a long time and grew to miss the sea, so now I'm back in Dorset, still doing the same job, and lucky enough to be doing it from home - which is now leaving me more time to paint. I only actually started selling paintings in 2002.

14. If someone were interested in buying either a print or an original piece, how could they get in touch with you?
You can find me at www.emmamountart.com or rosie-lee.deviantart.com

15. Lastly, the cliche interview topic I suppose, how did you come across Phirebrush and what made you submit and continue to submit?
Well I discovered deviantART first, and in there I read in someone's journal that they'd submitted work to you and been featured, so I came to have a look, loved all the art I saw, and decided to give it a go myself. I had no idea, and was a bit overwhelmed, that you would feature my first submission as a leading picture (on Issue 38) and I've been submitting ever since. I think it's a really inspiring magazine, I love seeing what everyone else is doing, and its a really great feeling to know you're not alone and that there's loads of creative people out there working hard at it. Again, I'm amazed to be interviewed and really appreciate you guys for even noticing me. It means a lot, especially as I really want to constantly improve and make this my future. thanks jason and james xx